This is a two page article where the Industry Gamers site has an interview with Bioware's Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. So expect a lengthy read but insightful to a certain respect in the direction EA is going with Bioware.

Regarding Paid DLC:

Quote:

Greg Zeschuk: I think in that sense it’s almost… we don’t really worry so much about that as much as creating that long term relationship with the consumer. I think we’re all working on what’s probably going to be a long-term digital relationship with people. I think that this is our… Cerberus, for example. It’s quite literally a service, as Ray noted. This Cerberus thing appears in your Mass Effect screen, and gives you information. What it’s really about is the more general longer-term monetization... you know, we’ve had no DVD business, like the movie business had. You release your game, and whatever happens, happens. This gives us actually a longer-term perspective. It actually allows us to look a little more ,even just more than regular retail… a little more subscription-based business. It’s not the same, but it just keeps it going.

Greg Zeschuk It’s kind of like almost… our ideal world is that we’ll make more on PDLC and post release sales of any type than the original game ever sold for, anyway. That’s kind of like the long-term view. I think, collectively, we’re moving into that kind of business.

IG: Right, that seems to be a huge focus for EA.

So if Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age is big on DLC, perhaps a variant of it will appear in SW:TOR. Although its a Mmorpg, I wonder if micro-transactions via key codes of exclusive items will appear. Akin to DLC for single player RPG's or multiplayer FPS with "Bad Company 2".

On FaceBook social app games tying into a main game title:

Quote:

Ray Muzyka: Yeah, but you’ve got to start… you learn by experimenting and trying things. That’s why we tried that and said, “we’ll give it to our fans and learn how they play it and use it and learn from the experience.” And we are actually quite inspired by a lot of the features of social games. It’s cool to imagine ways you can pull in social features into your main properties, or have them sort of as a social game/applet or something like that. You could surface your character on your Facebook page. Make choices and do auction trades… things like that. It would be kind of cool for some games in the future. There are ways to enable social gameplay that are really seamlessly integrated with the main experience and they could be in the game or out of the game… it's almost like a different form of narrative that occurs with the interaction, a synchronicity between players outside the game that kind of… just builds on and helps to develop and keep them engaged in the main game experience.

On Motion Controllers in games done right:

Quote:

Greg Zeschuk: How fun. We think about it, we look at it, we evaluate it, we’ve seen all the stuff, many of the demos beforehand. I think for us, it has to come down to the gameplay experience. I think trying to figure out the meaningful motion... motions that are best to actually enhance RPGs are interesting. One way to think about it is from a very specific sense, if there’s a way that it can actually enhance your feeling that you’re actually acting in the game. One interesting thing is to imagine Mass Effect with being able to kind of like use certain gestures (that) could change the conversation or stop it, and you could actually pull your finger and pretend you’re shooting the guy for the renegade action. All of these things are all possibilities; the challenge is how it all fits together. I think there’s possibilities… I personally want to see it evolve beyond the party game, but I can never help [but] see the party sport, or bowling; all these things that are so natural in those venues… it’s going to be a challenge for us to get over them. I actually think it’s exciting, but I think that’s the interesting thing that’s going to start out in familiar territory, very much probably like the Wii did. You look at the Wii, and no one’s ever gotten past that, that initial stage. At least, that’s my opinion.

There's a lot more to this article such as how the Japanese RPG makers got complacent in their prior successful model of a RPG formula. Making room for the West to usurp them with great RPG's of: Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2, Fable etc...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Zeschuk

So, I think what happened is they got very complacent for a very long time. They kept making the same thing, and the same thing, and, in a sense, almost provided an opening for all of us to jump in with our style of games. I know first hand that they’re looking at our games now; they’re kind of looking at our stuff, the Fable stuff, and Fallout, and all that, and going, “what are these things?” I think they had gotten used to making the same thing over and over, and it was working. I think the other thing, too, is that the Japanese market has gotten quite a bit weaker and weaker. It’s just not as strong a market.

Before i spoil the rest of it go on and read it up it's a good interview.